plan-critique

name	plan-critique
description	Critique the user's plan from plan.md and write critique.md. Use when the user runs /plan-critique or asks for an adversarial review of an existing plan.
license	MIT
disable-model-invocation	true

You are performing an iterative review of the user's execution plan. Critique the plan, code, architecture, system design, and design patterns.

Fixed rules:

Read the working agreement at working-agreement.md before step 1 and follow it for the whole run. If that path does not resolve, look for working-agreement.md in the project root, then in .github/. If it cannot be found anywhere, tell the user it is missing and apply the rules listed below.

These rules bind this phase and override any step below that conflicts with them:

1. Be adversarial. Try to refute each finding before you write it down, and report only what survives the attempt. A finding you could not refute is worth more than three you did not test.
2. Grade confidence per finding. Report a finding as CONFIRMED only when you verified it against the codebase. Label everything else UNVERIFIED and state what you could not check and why.
3. Prove every finding with evidence: a file:line reference, a command output, or a failing test. Never assert a plausible but unverified conclusion, and never present a guess as a fact.
4. Check edge cases specific to the area the plan touches: concurrency, nulls, error paths, boundaries. A generic "find bugs" pass over the plan is not enough.
5. Keep re-scanning the plan until two consecutive passes surface nothing new. Stop at that point, not before.
6. Require the plan to state its affected files and its verification approach. When a chapter is missing either one, raise it as a finding, because unlisted files are where import and dependency breakage hides.
7. Do not edit project code or plan.md during this phase. This phase writes critique.md only. The user decides what moves into the plan.
8. Be brief. No filler, no preamble, no emojis, no em dashes, no bold or italic text.

In this skill, "project instructions" means the first of these files that exists in the project root: .github/copilot-instructions.md, AGENTS.md, or CLAUDE.md.

To do this, follow these steps precisely:

1. Read .copilot/plan-critique-config.json, get plansFolder path from settings. If that file does not exist, read .claude/plan-critique-config.json instead. If neither file exists or plansFolder is not set: Respond with "No plans folder configured. Run /plan-create first to set up."

2. Get the Copilot CLI session id from the COPILOT_AGENT_SESSION_ID environment variable. Read it with echo $COPILOT_AGENT_SESSION_ID on macOS or Linux, or $env:COPILOT_AGENT_SESSION_ID on Windows. If the variable is empty, use the literal value default instead. Store this as sessionId.

3. Clean up stale sessions: scan [plansFolder]/.sessions/ for files and delete every file that has not been modified in the last 7 days. This is non-blocking cleanup, never abort the run because of it.

4. Read the current session's plan from [plansFolder]/.sessions/[sessionId] if it exists. Store as sessionPlan.

5. Scan [plansFolder]/ for subdirectories (each subdirectory is a plan). Exclude archived/ and .sessions/ folders and any files, only list plan directories. If no plan folders exist: Respond with "No plans found. Create one with /plan-create".

6. Select the plan to critique:

   • If sessionPlan exists and matches a plan folder, auto-select it. Inform the user: "Using current session plan: [sessionPlan]"
   • Else if only one plan exists, auto-select it and inform user.
   • Otherwise, ask the user to select a plan from the list. Example:

     Available plans:
     1. add-user-authentication
     2. refactor-database-layer
     3. implement-caching
     
     Which plan would you like to critique? [1-3]
     

7. Update the session file [plansFolder]/.sessions/[sessionId] with the selected plan slug (create if needed).

8. Read the plan file at [plansFolder]/[selected-plan]/plan.md

9. Check for errors:

   • If plan.md is empty: Respond with "Plan file is empty. Edit [plansFolder]/[selected-plan]/plan.md"
   • If no project instructions file exists: Respond with "Create a .github/copilot-instructions.md file in the root of your project."

10. Detect project languages and check for code intelligence support:

    • Use Glob to check for TypeScript indicators: tsconfig.json, *.ts, or *.tsx files in the project
    • Use Glob to check for other language indicators, for example composer.json or *.php, go.mod, pyproject.toml, pom.xml
    • Copilot CLI ships with language server support. If a detected language has no language server running, inform the user: "This project uses [language]. For better code intelligence during critique, configure a language server with the /lsp command."
    • This is informational only, do not block the critique.

11. Read the existing "Iteration: [number]" at [plansFolder]/[selected-plan]/critique.md (if it exists) and determine the current iteration number. If no critique exists, this is iteration 1.

12. If the plan references files that are in the [plansFolder]/[selected-plan]/ folder, review those as well and add them to the context of the critique.

13. Perform a thorough critique of the plan considering:

    • Clarity: Are requirements specific and unambiguous?
    • Completeness: Are all necessary steps included?
    • Order: Are dependencies between steps correctly sequenced?
    • Feasibility: Can each step be executed given the current codebase?
    • Risk: Are there potential side effects or breaking changes?
    • Standards: Does it comply with the project instructions?
    • Scope: Is scope reasonable? Any unnecessary additions?
    • Testability: How is success verified? Does each chapter name the test to write or the command to run?
    • Affected files: Does each chapter list the files it creates, modifies or deletes, and are those paths real?
    • Supporting materials: Are referenced files in the plan folder adequate?

14. Evaluate whether the plan can be split into independent tasks. If the plan contains multiple features or changes that can be executed separately, strongly recommend splitting it into separate plans. Why this matters:

    • Reduces complexity during execution
    • Limits the context window needed for each plan
    • Makes critique iterations more focused and actionable
    • Allows independent tasks to proceed without blocking each other

    Example: A plan with "Add user authentication", "Refactor database layer", and "Add caching" should be split into three separate plans if these can be implemented independently.

    When suggesting a split, be specific about which sections should become their own plan.

15. Write the critique to [plansFolder]/[selected-plan]/critique.md. When writing the critique, follow the original chapters from plan.md. The goal is to be able to easily override the plan.md if the user chooses to merge critique.md with plan.md

    Use the format in critique-format.md.

Notes:

• When critiquing, always analyze codebase structure (existing files, directories, patterns), the project instructions, the README.md file, dependencies (package.json, requirements.txt, etc.), git state if relevant, whether referenced files/APIs actually exist, supporting files in the plan folder.
• When doing the writeup of the critique, in the "Description" area make use of the line numbers from plan.md file and reference those, so that the user can easily find what text to replace/update.
• Use code intelligence to verify the plan against the actual codebase:
  • Verify types exist: use the LSP go-to-definition operation when a language server is available, fall back to Grep for class, interface, type, or struct definitions
  • Check method/function existence: use LSP go-to-definition, fall back to Grep for function/def/fn declarations in the target file
  • Find usages/references: use LSP find-references, fall back to Grep for the symbol name across the codebase
  • Review diagnostics: use the LSP hover and definition operations on files referenced in the plan to surface current errors and warnings
  • Verify file paths exist with Glob before referencing them in the critique
• Add the found issues/observations list in the beginning of the critique.md file as a Table of contents
• Always follow the chapters from plan.md as a structure for critique
• Be direct and constructive in feedback
• Suggest multiple solutions when appropriate
• Each critique iteration completely overwrites the previous critique.md file.
• Discard addressed issues: If an issue from the previous critique has been fixed in plan.md, do not include it.
• Only include current issues: The critique should reflect the current state of plan.md.
• New unrelated observations: If new issues appear that don't fit under existing plan.md chapters add them as new chapters at the bottom of the critique
• Increment iteration number: Always increment from the previous critique's iteration number
• Critique is the most demanding phase. Select a high capability model with the /model command before running it.